The usual setup on an albacore is to have a "working forestay", that is a wire rope in the luff of the jib that connects to a wire rope jib halyard that is then connected to some sort of tensioning system. When you raise the jib, the forestay goes slack and the jib halyard tightens the rig. You then adjust the rig tension by adjusting the jib halyard tensioner.

With this system, the actual forestay is only used to hold the mast up while the boat is on shore. Since there's very little load on the rig while the boat is ashore, you don't need wire rope all the way. Most racing boats have the forestay a foot or so short that is then tied on with line. This allows the total forestay length to be adjusted - if you want to rake the mast aft, the forestay will need to be longer. Generally, you want more rake (the mast angled back from 90 degrees) in higher wind.

So, bottom line is: get wire rope that's about a foot shorter than you think it should be (you don't need to be very precise here), use line to make up the difference and to allow you to adjust the total length of the forestay to accommodate different rake settings.

I don't have a Grampain, but my Skene came with a turnbuckle-based forestay like the one you describe. I converted to the modern setup a long time ago. I'm also sailing with a lot more rake than what the old system would allow, and the boat definitely sails better that way. Let me know if you have more questions.

one approach is to get yourself a swage kit and make it yourself. http://www.downwindmarine.com/Swage-It- ... 01560.html. Once you get it set up the way you like you can take the home made rigging to a shop and have them make up properly machine swaged stays the same length.

I converted it to a 12-1 purchase led back to the rail on each side of the boat so that I can do fine tuning while hiked out. The rigging is a little complicated, but there's an article or two on the class website.